Carnival Panorama July 1-8, 2023 Trip Report: Bar Takeovers, Bangin' Breakfasts, & Bucket Worshipping

[TaraLynne]

So after the whole comedian situation bombed for us, Dean was ready for bed but step son B (just a reminder: this one is 22, haha) and I weren't quite there yet, so we ended up being last family members standing.

 

Oh, and this is where the weather bears mentioning, because it had been barely over 70 degrees when we left Long Beach, and by the time the sun set it was in the low 60s (at best) and getting a bit windy. Because of that - and the fact that none of us had really brought "cold weather" clothes (listen, we're from inland southern California, anything below 70 is chilly for us) - B and I decided to grab drinks INSIDE, and ended up at the bar in the Atrium.

 

Speaking of which, we were both a bit weirded out by this blood-cell-looking tapestry that was happening in (on?) the pillar when we got there:

 

...looking at it now I'm wondering if it's maybe supposed to be the mouths of brass instruments (trumpets? tubas?) but still...meh.

 

So there we were, chilling, having some drinks and a nice quiet chat (why yes I am very very lucky to have great relationships with both of my step kids 🙂 ) when suddenly the bartender came around and warned us that we need to keep our drinks close. Needless to say, we were confused...but only for about a minute (maybe less), because the next thing we knew, a guy in a kilt came prancing into the atrium announcing that he was bringing "200 of his new friends" in for a party....and then he jumped up on the bar and started dancing and singing.

 

It was the Flying Scotsman, y'all! (because apparently bar takeovers are a thing - and there's the first reference in my report title, ha)

 

For real I had no idea things like this happened on cruises. Is it a newer thing? Did I somehow just happen to miss events like this on all 7 of my previous cruises (3 of which were with Carnival)? Is it specific to THIS cruise director? Either way, our faces in the photo say it all...but we did end up rolling with it and then spent the rest of the week joking about how best to avoid the Flying Scotsman at all costs.

 

(We weren't really mad, it was just a very shocking interruption to our quiet step mom/step son chat time. I mean really, imagine you're just sitting in a bar - any bar - and then out of the blue a guy in a kilt dances and sings his way in with a crowd of strangers. No matter how you look at it, it's hilarious, IMO 😉 )

 

Anyway, we eventually snuck out (literally, joking all the way about how we needed to sneak out or possibly risk being followed by the Scotsman and his new friends) and went up to the Lido deck to get late-night pizza. The wait wasn't TOO bad (maybe 10 minutes?) but sadly the pizza was burned. (In fact, I had late-night pizza three times on the cruise; twice it was burnt and once it was undercooked, and the wait was always at least 10-15 minutes. Maybe it's better during the day?)

 

Wow, I can't believe it took me three separate posts just to finish day 1. I'd say I'd try to be less wordy but....that probably won't happen, haha.

Edited July 12, 2023 by TaraLynne

[weezal]

3 hours ago, red lobster said:

I'm so happy you are doing a review, I'm booked for the November 11th sailing and I have no idea what to do in Mazatlan. The ports for Mexican Riviera board barely has any recommendations. I love reading up on here about tips ect. before we go. Thank you for taking the time to do this.

a new aquarium just opened in mazatlan. it's not expected to be fully completed until 2024.

[TaraLynne]

7 hours ago, red lobster said:

I'm so happy you are doing a review, I'm booked for the November 11th sailing and I have no idea what to do in Mazatlan. The ports for Mexican Riviera board barely has any recommendations. I love reading up on here about tips ect. before we go. Thank you for taking the time to do this.

sadly while we had a good time in mazatlan, i wouldn't necessarily highly suggest what we chose to do that day. i'll get into that more when i write about that port day but my in-laws did a pulmonia tour and while it wasn't totally up their alley, a lot of that is because of age/health concerns and how hot it was that day - they said they see why other people really like them. i was interested in the lighthouse tour that someone else mentioned but i knew the kiddos wouldn't want to have to 'hike' and honestly i'm not sure my partner would have loved it either because of the heat.

[mkcurran]

9 hours ago, red lobster said:

I'm so happy you are doing a review, I'm booked for the November 11th sailing and I have no idea what to do in Mazatlan. The ports for Mexican Riviera board barely has any recommendations. I love reading up on here about tips ect. before we go. Thank you for taking the time to do this.

If you are into looking at buildings and markers you can walk the blue line into town. If you are into beaches head over to stone island. 

If you are into small private tours, book one of the plumonias. I liked the beach break tour from mazatlantours.org. Starts with a bay cruise, then lunch, open bar, and beach time.

Edited July 13, 2023 by mkcurran

[momof3cruisers]

On 7/11/2023 at 3:37 PM, TaraLynne said:

 

 

We (myself, partner Dean, older step kid B) then decided to check out the stand-up comedian who was performing that night...BIG mistake. I don't want to mention his name because as a creator/performer myself I don't love shitting on the work of other creatives, but this comedian barely wrenched a single chuckle out of any of us. An example of the worst """joke""" we heard: just stating that women shouldn't wear granny panties and should always wear thongs is not a joke, or a good punchline, or anything. (Seriously there was almost no lead-in to that bit, it was just a statement he was making about an ex - maybe an ex-wife? Either way that bit wasn't funny at all and nothing before or after it was decent comedy either,  😉

 

Haha—I have been to that comedian and agree he’s not funny. Sadly, I don’t remember his name because I would avoid him at all costs in the future. It was his ex-wife. We decided she had had a lucky escape. His first show on the cruise we were on was also incredibly offensive. Like racist, mysoginistic, homophobic, anti-Semitic and those were just in the first 15 minutes. I got up and walked out along with at least half the audience. Oddly people who saw him the second night thought he was funny. We didn’t give him a second chance. 
 

I like your review. Good balance of informative and fun. And I cracked up at the expressions on your faces re: the CD on the bar. Lol

[TaraLynne]

8 hours ago, momof3cruisers said:

Haha—I have been to that comedian and agree he’s not funny. Sadly, I don’t remember his name because I would avoid him at all costs in the future. It was his ex-wife. We decided she had had a lucky escape. His first show on the cruise we were on was also incredibly offensive. Like racist, mysoginistic, homophobic, anti-Semitic and those were just in the first 15 minutes. I got up and walked out along with at least half the audience. Oddly people who saw him the second night thought he was funny. We didn’t give him a second chance. 
 

I like your review. Good balance of informative and fun. And I cracked up at the expressions on your faces re: the CD on the bar. Lol

Thank you! And okay, I'm glad we aren't the only ones who were hardcore side-eying the things this guy was saying. We walked in super late and probably should have realized that if we could walk in more than halfway through the show (especially as our ship was at capacity) that wasn't a good sign, heh. I doubt we were there for even 15 minutes, thankfully.

[TaraLynne]

Now that I *finally* finished my day 1 story, it's on to our first full day, which was a day at sea! We weren't in any hurry to get up but for some blasted reason they were making ship-wide announcements that we could absolutely hear loud and clear in our room starting at...well to be honest I can't remember if it was 8 AM or 9 AM but either way there was no staying in bed past 9:15 that day. Dean and I decided to check in for sea day brunch and this was the only time we checked in for a meal and had to wait more than about 10-15 minutes - we were given a 30-40 minute wait time but only waited about 20 minutes.

 

Granted...we then waited about 15 minutes for anyone to bring us water or coffee, then a bit longer before someone came by to take our order. It took about 15 minutes to get the drinks we ordered (just a pepsi and a pressed juice - and by the way the pressed juices, despite being just $5 each, are NOT included in the Cheers package) and food came about 5-10 minutes after our drinks. Also weirdly enough despite going to sea day brunch all three days it was offered, this was the ONLY morning they came around with the pastry service 😕

 

Food-wise, I had the eggs benedict, which tasted good, but their temperature was off - like, they were barely lukewarm. The breakfast potatoes were great (and by the way, they have the same potatoes at the buffet) but the real standout was the skillet cake. (I actually ended up ordering that skillet cake at all three sea day brunches, that's how good it was). Oh and the juice I had was the one with pineapple, beets, and ginger, and it was okay but a little, err, earthy for my taste.

 

 

So this is where I need to talk about the Carnival Hub app a bit, though. Most of us had downloaded it prior to the cruise and just a note to make sure you do this BEFORE the cruise because my two step kids hadn't and almost weren't able to do so without paying for internet, because the minute we go on the ship service was spotty as heck). All 7 of us paid the $5 for access to the chat because most of us didn't want to pay for internet - myself included, because dangit, I wanted and NEEDED a week of being almost entirely unplugged 😉

 

Some things about the app are great - like having the schedule and being able to look ahead for future days of the cruise, and even being able to see MDR menus ahead of time (though if you're looking for beyond the current day they can be a bit harder to dig up in the app). And of course the dining check in worked great, though all week I was VERY "?????? about the crowd of people always gathered outside the aft dining room (which was where we went to sea day brunch and where the your time dining was located). Did they just not download the app? Or have it and not know that you could use it to check in your entire party (or even just certain members)? Or know that they could do that but not that it actually sent you and everyone you checked in a notification when your table was ready and would be held for 10 minutes? Seriously, my inquiring mind wants to know! (Especially as more often than not we basically had to wade through all the people to get to the host)

 

The weather was also kind of useless, because for this day it was I think giving us the temperature in our first port (Puerto Vallarta) which was high 80s, whereas I doubt it was more than 65 degrees at the warmest, and on the last day it was surely giving us the Long Beach temperature, which was low or mid 70s when I don't think it got above 60 that day at all.

 

Theeennnn there's that chat option. It was a MESS. It didn't work for the better portion of this day, which is why I'm 'reviewing' the app in this particular entry. It also didn't work for the better part of Friday (our final day and also a day at sea). It also lost service for shorter periods of time (by 'shorter' I'm talking, it didn't work for an hour or so at a time versus not working for 3-4 hours at a time). Additionally, even when it wasn't giving us the "can't connect" warning, messages would look like they went through but then would disappear from chat history (and after asking the people we sent them to, they were also never received). Often a message sent only once would appear two or more times in the chat. It was just very buggy overall and IMO if you're going to charge for a service it should at least work consistently. (If it had been free it still would have been frustrating, but much less so, even if it was "only" $5 per person)

 

Okay, mini rant about the app over. After brunch, I decided to make use of my week-long thermal spa pass and spent well over an hour in the heated lounge chairs/whirlpool/aromatherapy steam room/infrared sauna/laconium room. (The Hammam room was broken that day but fixed when I went back later in the week) The aromatherapy steam room was almost too hot (I certainly don't remember the ones on other ships being as hot as this one) and I feel like the laconium room wasn't hot ENOUGH, but overall a good experience. I think of the three times I went throughout the week, only once were all the thermal lounges taken, and even that time at least one was vacated not long after I got there...which was honestly surprising because both this day and our final sea day it was COLD out.

 

After relaxing for a good long while and then showering/getting dressed, I wanted to find the rest of my party...buuuut because the chat app wasn't working (and hadn't been the entire time I was in the spa/getting ready after the spa) I had no idea where they were. No worries, I bellied up to the Parched Pig bar with my book and their signature Bloody Mary!

 

Seriously, the maple caramelized bacon was amazing. I'm not a huge bacon person and I couldn't stop eating it 😄

 

Oh, and about halfway through my drink the hub app chat started working again, so I finished my chapter and headed up to the sports square area to meet up with Dean and the kids...but because this entry is already super text-heavy I'll continue with the second half of the day later 🙂

 

Edited July 13, 2023 by TaraLynne

[csm5986142]

49 minutes ago, TaraLynne said:

and by the way the pressed juices, despite being just $5 each, are NOT included in the Cheers package)

 

I wondered about that - we noticed that it was not considered an option for the  Platinum complimentary beverage at Seaday Brunch either.  

[bluejay555]

Great review so far!  

[TaraLynne]

11 minutes ago, csm5986142 said:

 

I wondered about that - we noticed that it was not considered an option for the  Platinum complimentary beverage at Seaday Brunch either.  

Yeah I mean it's no big deal, just seems odd that a $5 juice isn't included when a mixed drink three times that price is, haha

[willdra]

Awesome review so far♥️♥️♥️! Thanks for the reminders on the weather. We will be back on Panorama in Oct., and I’d forgotten about how chilly it gets on that side of the world! 🥶🥶🥶

[TaraLynne]

6 minutes ago, willdra said:

Awesome review so far♥️♥️♥️! Thanks for the reminders on the weather. We will be back on Panorama in Oct., and I’d forgotten about how chilly it gets on that side of the world! 🥶🥶🥶

haha yeah we didn't even think about it because we live just an hour and a half from long beach and it's SO hot here. and of course it's always cooler on the water but it never got this chilly on my caribbean cruises. shoot i think it was as warm or even warmer on my alaska cruise!

[TaraLynne]

Okay so once I finally knew where the fam was, I headed up to meet them playing shuffleboard. For which we, uh, had to make up our own points rules because while there were some instructions available, the board itself didn't have the proper demarcations. Whatever, we still had fun!

 

After playing what turned into a way-too-long game due to our questionable points rules, we headed back to our rooms to get ready for the first formal night. And at some point during my lengthy time at the Parched Pig and our shuffleboard game, our room steward (Hendriana, who was awesome) had cleaned up our room and left us our first towel animal 🙂

 

Once we were ready for dinner, Dean and I made a pit stop at Alchemy to get one of the Cucumber Sunrises that we needed for the bar crawl game. I *love* cucumber but previously the mixed drinks I've had that featured it were awful....so I was more than pleasantly surprised that this one was AMAZING! It became my signature Alchemy drink of the week 😉

 

Of course this was our first night eating dinner in the MDR. I checked our party of 7 in and we were seated within about 10 minutes or so (once again wading through the crowd of people hanging around outside the entrance, sigh). Unfortunately after that everything about this experience was wayyyy. too. long. I want to say we were seated around 6:15ish (give or take 5 minutes) and it was a nearly two-hour-long meal (and trust me, not because we were eating super slow, heh). Also we ordered drinks and they took so. dang. long. to arrive.

 

Oh well. It would have helped if the food had been really great, but despite always praising what you get for the price on Carnival cruises - especially for MDR dinners - this cruise didn't leave me feeling that way. For this meal I had the pumpkin soup, which was far more bland than I remember; the filet mignon, which was honestly the toughest filet I've ever eaten; and then I chose tonight as my "double dessert daredevils" night (a term that came about on my very first cruise when my dad and I ordered two desserts at dinner, haha) and had the soufflé (which was awesome) and the chocolate melting cake (which I know is highly touted but is a bit rich for my taste - still, I felt like I had to have it at least once on this cruise).

 

 

After dinner Dean, myself, and the kiddos went off to find something we could all enjoy together (as youngest kiddo C hadn't been able to get into the comedy thing the night before, not that he missed anything there, heh)...and we ended up in the piano bar! We hung out there for a good long while, and really enjoyed Alejandro...and especially how he poked fun at people anytime someone left 😉

 

Eventually C was ready for bed and I was getting there too, but as we were leaving the piano bar we heard something crazy going on in the atrium...and knowing it had to be mine and B's mortal enemy the Flying Scotsman again, we wandered over to find him dancing on the bar (in what looked like a flapper dress this time) and I think encouraging a couple audience members to do some sort of strip tease? Mainly Dean just wanted to see something like the utter craziness B and I had experienced the night before, but after a few minutes they decided to go off in search of other things while I, who was still full from dinner and tired from not getting enough sleep the night before, headed off to bed.

 

But on the way, I did have to dip outside and take a picture of the full moon!

 

Up next, sea day v2.0 - the day it finally got HOT[T?] 😄

[lbfluffy]

On 7/12/2023 at 12:01 PM, TaraLynne said:

So after the whole comedian situation bombed for us, Dean was ready for bed but step son B (just a reminder: this one is 22, haha) and I weren't quite there yet, so we ended up being last family members standing.

 

Oh, and this is where the weather bears mentioning, because it had been barely over 70 degrees when we left Long Beach, and by the time the sun set it was in the low 60s (at best) and getting a bit windy. Because of that - and the fact that none of us had really brought "cold weather" clothes (listen, we're from inland southern California, anything below 70 is chilly for us) - B and I decided to grab drinks INSIDE, and ended up at the bar in the Atrium.

 

Speaking of which, we were both a bit weirded out by this blood-cell-looking tapestry that was happening in (on?) the pillar when we got there:

 

...looking at it now I'm wondering if it's maybe supposed to be the mouths of brass instruments (trumpets? tubas?) but still...meh.

 

So there we were, chilling, having some drinks and a nice quiet chat (why yes I am very very lucky to have great relationships with both of my step kids 🙂 ) when suddenly the bartender came around and warned us that we need to keep our drinks close. Needless to say, we were confused...but only for about a minute (maybe less), because the next thing we knew, a guy in a kilt came prancing into the atrium announcing that he was bringing "200 of his new friends" in for a party....and then he jumped up on the bar and started dancing and singing.

 

It was the Flying Scotsman, y'all! (because apparently bar takeovers are a thing - and there's the first reference in my report title, ha)

 

For real I had no idea things like this happened on cruises. Is it a newer thing? Did I somehow just happen to miss events like this on all 7 of my previous cruises (3 of which were with Carnival)? Is it specific to THIS cruise director? Either way, our faces in the photo say it all...but we did end up rolling with it and then spent the rest of the week joking about how best to avoid the Flying Scotsman at all costs.

 

(We weren't really mad, it was just a very shocking interruption to our quiet step mom/step son chat time. I mean really, imagine you're just sitting in a bar - any bar - and then out of the blue a guy in a kilt dances and sings his way in with a crowd of strangers. No matter how you look at it, it's hilarious, IMO 😉 )

 

 

Anyway, we eventually snuck out (literally, joking all the way about how we needed to sneak out or possibly risk being followed by the Scotsman and his new friends) and went up to the Lido deck to get late-night pizza. The wait wasn't TOO bad (maybe 10 minutes?) but sadly the pizza was burned. (In fact, I had late-night pizza three times on the cruise; twice it was burnt and once it was undercooked, and the wait was always at least 10-15 minutes. Maybe it's better during the day?)

 

Wow, I can't believe it took me three separate posts just to finish day 1. I'd say I'd try to be less wordy but....that probably won't happen, haha.

 

[lbfluffy]

When we were on the Miracle we had the cruise director Georgia. She did Miley Cyrus Wrecking ball skit. It was hilarious!

[Buckett]

I'm really enjoying your review! Will be on Panorama in March 2024, can't wait! 😄 

[deladane]

Loving your review so far!  I'll be on the Panorama for a New Years Eve cruise!  Can you tell me if they changed ship time to match local port time?  I'm trying to plan some private excursions, so that makes a big difference if they change the clocks or not!  Thanks 🙂

[TaraLynne]

3 minutes ago, deladane said:

Loving your review so far!  I'll be on the Panorama for a New Years Eve cruise!  Can you tell me if they changed ship time to match local port time?  I'm trying to plan some private excursions, so that makes a big difference if they change the clocks or not!  Thanks 🙂

They did not change the ship time to match port time - pretty sure only Puerto Vallarta was different (one hour behind)

 

 

 

Edited July 17, 2023 by TaraLynne

[deladane]

10 minutes ago, TaraLynne said:

They did not change the ship time to match port time - pretty sure only Puerto Vallarta was different (one hour behind)

 

 

 

Okay, thanks for letting me know.  We are cruising in January and I don't think they observe daylight savings time so there would possibly be a one hour time difference if the ship doesn't match local time.

[vanislandcruisers]

Thanks for taking us along!!!...Looking forward to rest!!!

[TaraLynne]

Okay, I had to set this aside to spend my weekend writing and editing stuff for my genre lit podcast, but I'm back to talk about our second day at sea...which was, tbqh, much more fun than the first sea day (maybe TOO much fun, at least for me, haha).

 

I insisted on sitting down for another sea day brunch because dangit, I wanted that skillet cake! Seating and service were MUCH faster on this day, though as previously mentioned they never did come around with the pastries 😞  But I did get to read a bit of my book and enjoy a mimosa (mainly so that I could check off that 'task' on my bar crawl game card, ha)

 

One thing I haven't yet mentioned - if you are a party of 1-4, you're going to get seated at tables VERY close to other people. (Seriously, I'm not sure the 2 and 4 tops are even six inches apart). Not so much a complaint from me, just putting the information out there.

 

(In fact we sat next to a cute family at this brunch and talked to them a bit - their son was very curious about my reading, probably because they overheard me telling Dean about how people kept trying to talk to me while I was reading at the bar the day before - which I didn't mind a whole lot, but was still a bit surprised that others were So! Shocked! that a person would be doing such a thing, lol)

 

After brunch we headed up to the Tides pool/bar area to see the land that we noticed while sitting at brunch - and just in time too, because it disappeared soon after that.

 

Next up we went to check out the ropes course and Sky Ride...there was no line for the former and my stupid self didn't really think about my fear of heights (and more specifically heights over water) before getting strapped in and climbing up to the first platform. So needless to say, the ropes course was a miserable experience for me, but I *did* in fact force my way through to the end and in celebration purchased my one and only photo from the cruise:

 

Next up we wanted to do the Sky Ride, but the line was long enough that after waiting for a few minutes in the heat (and with me already coming down from my [bad] ropes course adrenaline) we decided meh, we can try again later in the week! Uuuunfortunately that turned out to be a mistake, because both times we had time to check it out during the hours it should have been running, it was actually closed because it was too windy out 😞 So yeah, in hindsight I wish we'd stuck it out this time, and I'd suggest that if you really want to experience the Sky Ride, do so as soon as you can, because I also believe it was closed for a good portion of our first day at sea due to wind.

 

We then donned our swimsuits because again, WOW it was warm out (mid-80s at least, but probably a bit hotter than that, and pretty humid to boot) and headed to the Serenity area for another bar crawl game accomplishment - sangrias from the Serenity bar! Weirdly enough, only two of the four sangrias on the menu were available - I had wanted to try the white peach but ended up with the sparkling sangria. Thankfully I really enjoyed it even if it wasn't my first choice 🙂

 

We were able to find two lounge chairs in the Serenity area, one of which was actually in the shade thanks to the radar pole (not the most ideal situation, but shade is shade IMO)...except at one point I left to go to the bathroom and while Dean was standing at the railing watching the flying fish, someone walked up and just pulled our second lounge chair away? Honestly we weren't planning on staying long so they could have had it soon-ish anyway, but why would you just walk up behind someone and pull a chair away simply because they aren't sitting in it? (Yes, without saying anything/asking...) Yeesh.

 

Anyway, after watching the flying fish for a while (there were tons, but so tiny [and fast] that I didn't get any photos or really great videos, even) we decided it was time to freshen up and go see what's what around the ship.

 

Side note: The lines for the slides were really long (not surprisingly, now that it was hot, but I'm talking stretching away from the bottom of the stairs leading up to them), and while we didn't go to the water park the kids told us later it was so crowded you could barely move in the water play areas. The main and Tides pools were also so insanely crowded that we had zero desire to brave them, and while I saw a video from I think end of last year that I *swear* showed a pool in the Serenity, there definitely isn't one there, just hot tubs. Maybe the person who took the video labeled it wrong? Oh well.

 

On the way back to our room we did catch sight of the towel animals at the towel hut on the Lido and I'm not entirely sure what this is supposed to represent (bunnies in a nest? maybe?), but I love it?

 

Speaking of towel animals, while we were out Hendriana had tidied up our room and left this guy. I'm pretty proud of the caption I've been using for this photo: "Paint me like one of your French Terry animals" 😄

 

Some time later we were out and about again, not doing much of interest until it approached karaoke time - and we wanted to sing because that was another thing to check off for our bar crawl game 😉 We ended up heading to the Ocean Plaza area around 3:30 and were lucky to grab a table right at the edge of the stage/dance floor, even though there was still a trivia game going on - a game that I kind of wish we'd made it to because it seemed really fun and the employee running it, Manu, was great!

 

Now, karaoke didn't start until 4:30, *but* I'm glad we were sitting there so early because at about 4:20 I noticed that people were already lining up. I jumped in line as soon as I realized they must be signing up already, but was still 8th in line. My in-laws and BIL showed up a few songs in and they were already saying that they likely couldn't fit in everyone who was signing up. Moral of the story: if you REALLY want to sing karaoke, I'd say get there *at least* 15 minutes early so that you can be ready to sign up as soon as they put out the papers.

 

I'll save you all the video of us singing, but if you were on this sailing and happened by karaoke on Monday, we were the ones who sang "Bring Me to Life" by Evanescence. (Us singing that song has a long personal joke history, haha)

 

We ended up sticking around through almost the entire karaoke time, and having glanced over the MDR menu for that night weren't all that interested in it...so instead Dean ended up going with the lobster rolls from the Seafood Shack ($18 for two small lobster rolls and fries) while I eventually had a Cuban sandwich from the deli (it was really good, but as I'd been drinking - slowly but surely - since breakfast, I ummm didn't think to take a picture before chowing down, haha).

 

I did however manage to snap this one of the sun starting to go down 🙂

 

Dean, the kiddos,the BIL, and I actually went back to the piano bar that night, and got there early enough (about 20 minutes before Alejandro was scheduled to start) that we were able to snag one of the coveted half-circle booths at the back of the bar (the previous night we got there just after he started and were just barely able to squeeze into one of the booth/table combos in the front right corner).

 

And just to reiterate, I really can't praise Alejandro enough. He pulled people up from the audience to sing if they wanted (I got prodded into doing so - more than once - by my fam), he was funny, knew a lot of songs and was just in general super entertaining. As I mentioned earlier I had maybe TOO much fun this night - it meant another late-night pizza trip (this was the undercooked pizza experience) and a blasé start the next day...but honestly, still worth it 😉

 

I'll leave you with a pic of one of our song requests, because after many drinks we thought it would be just HILARIOUS to request that Alejandro *sing* "Alejandro" by Lady Gaga but to put in the request as if it were from himself...oh and because he'd been poking fun at the ridiculous name of our town (rightfully so, Rancho Cucamonga IS a ridiculous name) *and* he himself was from Colombia, why obviously it was extra hilarious for us to put the location as Rancho Cucalombia! (listen, I'm sure you just had to be there, but Alejandro did seem at least somewhat amused by it 😉 )

 

Obviously the next day we were FINALLY in port and I can't wait to get into our Puerto Vallarta experience - well, at least the excursion we did later in the day, anyway 🙂

[Rulers Mom]

On 7/13/2023 at 3:50 PM, willdra said:

Awesome review so far♥️♥️♥️! Thanks for the reminders on the weather. We will be back on Panorama in Oct., and I’d forgotten about how chilly it gets on that side of the world! 🥶🥶🥶

We'll be on the 10/7 8 day sailing.  I sure hope that is the cruise you will be on! Your reviews are a lot of fun ♥️ 

[Jeafl]

Really enjoying your review!  It brings back lots of fun memories of our trips!  We hung out in he piano bar most nights--it was always entertaining.

[TaraLynne]

When we woke up the next day, the ship had just docked in Puerto Vallarta! We had alarms set but were actually woken up by the announcement about ship time being an hour ahead of local time. We didn't bother showering or anything because we knew it was hot out and we were going to check out the beach, but we did get breakfast up on the Lido - I finally got one of the breakfast burritos, which IMO are *always* worth the wait (and even though there was a line both times I got one, I don't think I waited more than 10 minutes either time).

 

I never took a photo of the burritos themselves, but FYI my favorite style is the jalapeno tortilla, the Mexican-style eggs, pico de gallo, grilled onions, cheese, sour cream, and guac 🙂

 

Once we finally gathered up the kids, we walked right off the boat. I hadn't done a TON of research on these ports, but as someone commented earlier in this thread, there really isn't all that much intel out there - some posts, sure, and some videos on YouTube, but I never got a clear picture of exactly what direction to head in to get to the beach in PV. So we followed others who were wandering away from the ship....aaand that ended up being the wrong direction for us (it was a pretty decent crowd of people but seemed like they were all going to WalMart, or other places nearby).

 

We went through a small security "building" (it was more of a booth, really, and they weren't checking anything on the way out, but there was an x-ray machine for bags and a fully dressed soldier standing there) and ended up basically right across the street from the WalMart...realized we weren't going the right way, turned right toward the ocean when we saw the nice/new-ish looking buildings at the edge of the port, and then ended up walking through those buildings (which turned out to be the little shopping center attached to the port) to the beach.

 

Also - I'll get into this a bit more when I write about Mazatlan, but I kind of wish we had done a beach day in PV instead of Mazatlan. While the public beach near the port in PV doesn't have all of the "amenities" that Stone Island has, the beach and water seemed MUCH cleaner and way less crowded.

 

 

The beach is of course lined with hotels and there are some beachside restaurants, but we couldn't tell if any of them were actually open to the public, so we just walked up and down the beach for a bit, grabbed drinks at the bar/restaurant that's situated between the shopping center and the beach, and then headed back to the ship to get in some water slide time!

 

Quick pic of the ship in port:

 

Oh, and to get back we just went right through the little shopping center. We did have to go through actual port security to get back in, but they just checked our ship cards and had us run our bags through an x-ray machine...which of course we had to do again when we got back on the ship, but the only reason I'm making note of the security for the port itself is because there was NONE for either Mazatlan or Cabo. It's been so long since I did a cruise that I don't remember what the security situation was in the Caribbean ports I visited, but yeah, interesting that PV was the only of the three on this cruise that had that 'extra' security.

 

I don't have any pics of our afternoon spent in the splash zone/on the slides, but we had a blast, because I was right that it wouldn't be crowded at all, which meant we were able to get right up under the giant water bucket and never wait more than 5 minutes for either of the slides 🙂

 

Oh, and this is where the "bucket worshiping" part of my post title comes in, because we also spent a lot of time waiting for the giant water bucket in the splash area to fill up and dump on us...and whether it was 4 people or 8 people or more than that standing around watching, it always looked like a group worshiping the bucket, IMO. And honestly I don't even know WHY getting water dumped on you like that is so fun, but dangit, it is!

 

Also, the slides on the Panorama are great! The blue one is SUPER fast for the last like third of it, so I liked it more than the red one, which is a tube slide (and still very fun, just nowhere near as fast as the blue one)

 

We also jumped into the Tides pool for a bit because there were only a handful of people in it, and then grabbed burgers from Guy's (yummy as always!) and watched some of National Treasure on the big screen before going back to our rooms to get ready for our excursion...where this little guy was waiting for us 🙂

 

Honestly, the excursion we did - Rhythm of the Night, which we met up for at 3:30 and didn't get back from until the ship was about to leave PV that night - deserves an entry all to itself, so I'll get into that...ummm hopefully within the next day or two, depending on my schedule 🙂

[LincolnLog]

I’m loving your report. We were on the week after you guys so it’s all still fresh in my mind but it’s fun to see through others eyes. We’ve done the Las Caletas day trip twice and we love it there, but we’ve never done Rhythms so I can’t wait to hear about it!